Harrow

Spawns

Hockey Talent

Latest player crop

maintains town’s winning tradition

BY GARY RENNIE

STAR SPORTS WRITER

A lot of great players stickhandle through their entire minor hockey careers and never win a major provincial championship in the OMHA, Hockey Alliance or OHF. Maybe they should move to Harrow. Despite its small size —300 or so minor hockey registrations in a good year — Harrow and Colchester South has sent 19 teams to an OMHA final in its 28-year history and won 12 of them. The Harrow juvenile team that won an OMHA title this year includes Karl Lonsbery, who’s celebrated similar victories seven times before that. Captain Stephen Brush has seven OMHA wins in total. Mike Pigeon and Mark Salter have six. Jordan Long, three. Tom Renaud and Jeff Levergood, two. Do they ever get a little ho-hum about the on-ice celebration and post-game party after yet another win?" I’m more excited now for all the other guys who haven’t won it," said Lonsbery whose family farm south of Harrow is just down the road from Brush’s. "It’s exciting when it’s a close game," said Brush, a 20-year-old second-year computer science student at the University of Windsor.

Core group

Most of the Harrow wins have come from a core group of players born in 1982 or 1983. "We all still hang out together," said Brush. "Maybe it’s because we’ve gone on so many road trips together since we were eight or nine." Some from that core group, like Western Jr. B League MVP Colton Fretter and all-star defenceman Josh Zavitz now on a hockey scholarship at Canisius College, did move on early, which is fortunate for teams from other centres. Goalie Eric Rupert also left for the Kingsville Comets, along with Adrian Doyle and Heath Hendershot. Lonsbery played a bit for the Comets, but didn’t like the politics and battles for ice time that go with junior hockey and returned. Todd Wilder, who’s coached in Harrow 13 years and had five OMHA championship teams, said the attitude of the players over the years has been remarkable. With a small player base, few are cut and benches are sometimes thin compared to the opposition. But they work hard and know they can’t let the team down with undisciplined penalties, said Wilder. And the winning tradition gets passed on. "We expect to win," said Wilder. "That’s a lot of it."